


The Stray

by JinxedAmbitions



Category: The Losers (2010), The Losers - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Happy Ending, Implied animal abuse, Jake is included in all puppies, Jensen loves strays, M/M, The Losers adopt some stray pups, all puppies get happy endings in my fics, dog bites, he wants to adopt them all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-31 00:53:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3958324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JinxedAmbitions/pseuds/JinxedAmbitions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cougar knew there was going to be a problem as soon as he saw the stray picking through the neighbor's trash.  He isn't wrong, but he certainly wasn't expecting what was to follow.</p><p>Or</p><p>How Jensen desperately wants to befriend the local stray, but somehow it's Cougar the dog befriends, and Cougar spends months trying to convince the dog to give Jake a chance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yesterday, I saw a picture of a stray dog that got adopted, and I suddenly had to write a Losers fic about them adopting a stray dog. I didn't mean for it to be this long. I don't seem to understand the meaning of short.
> 
> Note the tags because there is definitely implied animal abuse in this, but everyone gets a happy ending and a loving family.

Cougar knew there was going to be a problem as soon as he saw the stray picking through the neighbor's trash. Where Cougar'd grown up, there had been a lot of strays. Some were friendly, and he'd fed them and played with them when he could, but strays were strays not pets. With seven mouths to feed, Cougar's parents—much like the other parents in his neighborhood—couldn't afford a dog to care for as well.

So, Cougar looked at the dog as a part of the neighborhood that he wouldn't be against leaving some leftovers out for, but not as something he planned to bring home with him and adopt. However, Cougar knew the same could not be said about another member of their household. Cougar didn't bother giving Clay a heads up about a stray in the neighborhood. What good would telling him do?

Clay could forbid pets all he wanted, but Jensen wouldn't be deterred. Jake was born to collect strays. Didn't matter what kind: animals, people, the socks that lost their mates to the dryer monster. Cougar had heard Jake's sister tell stories about the crazy things he brought home telling her they didn't have a home of their own, and couldn't they please keep it.

No, it was best that nature took its course, and Clay got the surprise of his life instead of forbidding such an action then having to discipline Jensen for insubordination.

It took three days for Jake to notice the dog. Clearly, Jensen had been distracted by his computers because even Roque had made a comment about the mutt by then.

“Pooch, I need a piece of your sandwich. Don't ask why, just give me a piece,” Jake announced, coming in from a trip to the liquor store and lacking any alcohol in his arms.

“Get your own sandwich. The Pooch is enjoying this,” Pooch replied, batting Jake's hands away when he tried to grab it.

Cougar rolled his eyes as he stood at the counter making his own lunch. Without looking up at Jake, Cougar held up two slices of roast beef. The dog liked roast beef. Cougar had fed him some yesterday when he came back from the store.

“You're the best, Cougs,” Jake told him, snatching the meat and dashing out through the garage again.

“He wanted to feed my sandwich to the stray?” Pooch asked, sounding royally offended.

Cougar just shrugged and glanced out the kitchen window to see Jake attempting to approach the dog whilst holding out the slice of roast beef. The dog looked wary of Jake, and Cougar frowned. The dog had come right up to him yesterday when he'd offer it the roast beef. Now, even from this distance, the dog looked ready to bolt.

Jake didn't seem deterred as he approached slowly. Just as he was crouching down a few feet from the animal, it ran down the street and under someone's fence.

Cougar could see the droop of Jake's shoulders even from two hundred feet away. He bit his lip, but he went back to making his sandwich. The dog had more sense than Jake. The dog knew the way of things. Jake just wanted to alter the balance of things.

“Get rejected by dogs too, Jake? Not just women anymore?” Pooch asked when Jensen came into the house carrying the cases of beer he'd brought home.

“Shut up, Pooch,” Jake bit out, and Pooch looked taken aback. Jake was always good-natured about his uncanny ability to strike out with women.

Jake dropped the beer on the counter next to Cougar and disappeared up to his room, carrying a six pack of his own with him. Cougar just frowned at his back.

“He really that upset the dog didn't want his roast beef? Scratch that, that sounded dirty as hell,” Pooch said, looking at his sandwich with a small frown of his own.

Cougar shrugged. It wasn't his business.

\---

Cougar saw the stray two days later, picking through their trash. Cougar growled. The dog had torn a hole in the bag and there was trash all over the driveway. Jake must have taken it out, because he was the only one that forgot to dump it all in the big can in the back of the garage.

“Shoo,” Cougar said, waving his arm at the dog to deter it from picking the mess apart any further. The dog didn't run. Instead it looked up at Cougar and wagged its tail. Cougar narrowed his eyes. “Not interested,” he told the dog, but the dog took a step toward him.

Cougar waved it off again, but the dog only came closer. Its yellow fur was covered in dirt, but the animal seemed to be in decent shape. Cougar stopped his assessment. Strays were strays. He didn't need to assess them like he was taking them home.

“Go on. You don't live...” Cougar stopped talking as the dog placed its head under his waving hand. He sighed, but he scratched behind the animal's ears because it would be rude not to. The dog made a low pleased sound much the way Jensen did when he scratched a particularly intense itch. The dog reminded Cougar a lot of Jensen especially the way its yellow fur stuck up in unruly tufts.

“You made my friend sad the other day. He wanted to be your friend,” Cougar told the dog as he continued to scratch its head and neck. “You should be nice to him next time. He is a good friend to have,” Cougar said, before stepping around the dog to pick up the trash before the garbage men passed by.

The dog sat where he left it, not attempting to get in the way of Cougar's clean up. When Cougar was finished, and the trash was in an actual can, he went and grabbed the dog a piece of chicken from the night before. The dog ate it hungrily on the back step before disappearing once again.

\---

The next time Jake approached the dog, Cougar was reading a book in the window seat in their bedroom. He saw the dog wandering down the street earlier with a limp. It wasn't uncommon. The neighbor's dog had been limping a few weeks ago. So, he'd ignored it, telling himself he'd leave food and water out for it that evening to help it keep its strength.

However, Jake saw the dog, and dashed outside. Cougar could see the worry in the line of Jake's shoulders. Cougar put a bookmark in his book and watched as Jake tried to get close to the dog.

As soon as the dog saw Jake, it froze, and its whole demeanor became guarded. Cougar bit his lip. Jake should leave it alone. However, Jake still tried to approach it, clearly wanting to help.

The dog took a step back as Jake got closer, and Cougar didn't like the way the animal was looking trapped even though there was plenty of space around it. He jumped off the window ledge and dashed down the hall toward the front door.

Cougar wasn't fast enough to stop the dog from biting Jake. Cougar was about fifteen feet away as Jake reached out, murmuring softly to the animal, but as soon as he was within striking distance, the dog lashed out and bit his forearm.

The sound Jake made was heartbreaking. It was like he hadn't even considered the dog might bite him. It just wasn't in his make up. Animals were sweet and things to be cherished, and they couldn't possibly hate him.

“Shoo,” Cougar said as he came to a halt at Jake's side. He motioned for the dog to run, and it actually obeyed this time. Jake was kneeling in the road, cradling his arm to his chest and rocking slightly. Cougar heard a distinct hiccup as Jake watched the dog run away as fast as its injured leg could carry it.

“Let me see,” Cougar ordered as gently as he could. He really wanted to tell Jake what an idiot he was for approaching the dog, but he kept his tone soft and free of judgment. Jake's heart had been in the right place, and Cougar couldn't fault him for that.

“He's hurt, Cougar,” Jake said as Cougar carefully pulled Jake's arm away from his chest.

“And now so are you,” Cougar replied, studying the damage. Jake was going to need a rabies shot. The bite had torn open the skin, and Cougar could already see the swelling where the dog's powerful jaw had bruised him. If Jake were a smaller man, the damage may have been more serious, and—not for the first time—Cougar was grateful that Jake was built to take a beating.

“But he's got no one to take care of him.” Jake sounded devastated. Cougar had seen the man calmly take down men aiming to kill him, but a dog with a slight limp was reducing him to tears. It was moments like this that made others question Jake's abilities as soldier, but Cougar believed this was what made Jensen a good soldier. Jensen still new the value of life even ones that others might deem insignificant.

“Not if he bites those who try,” Cougar said, but he held his tongue when Jake whined softly. “He will be fine. You however need to see a doctor. The dog could be sick,” Cougar told him, as he carefully helped Jake to his feet.

Pooch met them at the front door, having seen the incident from the living room.

“I've got my keys. Let's roll,” he told them, pointing to his SUV.

Cougar wrapped his scarf around Jake's arm, as Pooch drove, in order to stop the meager blood flow, but also because Jake couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from the distinct bite pattern as though it was the mark of all his failings.

Jake glanced up at him once it was covered in the cornflower blue scarf.

“It will be alright,” Cougar promised him.

“We can't tell them about him. What if they want to put him down? What if—”

“We will say it was an accident, and we are just erring on the side of caution. We do not need to tell them about the stray,” Cougar told him.

“Really? You don't—”

Cougar growled, and Pooch stopped mid thought and just turned the radio on instead.

“Thanks,” Jake whispered as he leaned into Cougar's side. Cougar didn't reply, but he wrapped his arm around Jake's shoulder. He agreed with Pooch.

Strays that bit were no good. What started as defensive behavior could easily become aggressive behavior. Children could be hurt. Anyone really.

Still, Cougar would not bring that up to Jake. Jake would be gutted, and Cougar didn't want that on his conscience.

The nurse looked put off as Jake tried to flirt with her as she cleared his wound and prepared the vaccine. Cougar cringed internally at how wrong Jake sounded as he tried to force levity. Pooch was waiting in the car, but Cougar was supervising because Jake was a notoriously bad patient. He was behaving today which was even more concerning.

The nurse seemed to pick up on the fact that Jake was upset, and she went and found him a Batman bandaid to cover the injection sight instead of the boring adult ones. Jake thanked her and gave her a sad smile.

The ride home was too quiet. Jensen was not made for silence, and it was disheartening as he sat staring out the window.

\---

Three days later, the dog was sniffing at the trash again when Cougar went out for his morning run. Cougar waved the dog off, but like the previous week the dog came closer, wagging its tail.

“Go away. You hurt him,” Cougar told the dog, stepping around the creature to get to the sidewalk. The dog followed, tail between its legs like it was contrite for what it'd done. “Go away,” Cougar repeated then he started to jog. The others ran too, but Cougar was always up first, and instead of waiting for the others, he'd taken to running on his own.

Today however, the dog decided to run with him. It still had a slight limp, but it had no trouble keeping pace with Cougar, much to his annoyance.

“He just wanted to help you, and you went and bit him,” Cougar found himself telling the animal after several attempts to get it to leave him alone. “I don't know why you do not like him,” Cougar said as he turned down the next block. He was quiet for a few moments as just the sound of his shoes and the dogs nails on the pavement accompanied them.

“He is good. He isn't like us. Doesn't know his place. Doesn't understand the balance of things. He doesn't think of rules, just what's right and good. If you are hungry, he'll offer your his food. If you're cold, he'll give you his coat or blanket. He's saved my life more than once. So, why don't you like him?” Cougar asked again.

He glanced down at the dog, and the dog looked up at him as it ran. The dog cocked its head as though it was trying to tell him something, but Cougar could understand it no better than it could understand him.

“You should give him a chance. He deserves a chance. I do not like to see him sad,” Cougar said aloud what he'd refused to admit for months.

The dog gave a soft bark, and as Cougar turned the next corner, it didn't follow. Instead it circled back the way they'd come. Cougar shrugged, continuing his usual circuit.

People were beginning to appear from their houses to head to work as he jogged down the sidewalk. Janet, who Cougar had met during one of his jogs, was wrangling her two young boys to the car to bring them to their grandmother's to catch the bus, so she could get to work. Fred was out watering his flowers. The old man never missed a morning. Cougar was pretty sure he watered rain or shine. Maybe he wasn't all there, but he was a gentle soul.

As Cougar was reaching the end of the block, he noticed a large man outside the corner house. He was packing up his truck as Cougar passed. Cougar had never met anyone from that house before, so he gave a brief wave, but it was met with narrowed eyes and a scowl. Cougar didn't like the man immediately. He was big and had hard muscle. His fair hair was cut in military style which only drew more attention to his wide neck. Cougar shrugged it off as he turned the corner.

Two blocks later, the mutt found him again. This time the dog was carrying an old chicken thigh in his mouth. Obviously, he'd made a stop at someone's trashcan while he was off on his own.

“You are trouble,” Cougar told the animal, but he let the dog run with him in peace.

\---

Jensen's arm healed faster than his spirits. Jake was still clearly upset by the rejection and aggression of the dog. Pooch tried to be understanding about it because he was a good guy. Clay, on the other hand, had threatened to kill the dog himself for injuring Jake and preventing them from being able to take a mission until he'd received the last dose of the vaccination in three weeks.

Cougar prayed none of them found out he jogged with the dog most mornings now. Cougar was starting to question his sanity because he spent most of his mornings listing off Jensen's best qualities to the mutt and asking the dog to reconsider his dislike of Jensen.

That very morning, he'd explained Jensen's unique sense of style to the animal as Cougar let the dog lead the run. The dog followed a circuit that Cougar rarely ran, but it was a good run nonetheless.

It was a strange friendship he'd developed with the dog. This wasn't how it was supposed to work. The dog was just a stray like so many others, but now he seemed to be Cougar's stray. Cougar chided himself for having believed it would have been Jake the went and upset the balance.

\---

The day the stray arrived on their doorstep injured, Cougar was livid. He opened the door to take his jog, and on their top step was the stray, covered in dirt and some blood. Its leg was clearly broken. Cougar didn't even think about the dog lashing out as he bent and scooped it into his arms and carried to poor creature into the house.

Roque raise an eyebrow as Cougar laid the dog on the kitchen counter. “Clay sees that mutt, and he's likely to call animal control,” Roque noted between sips of his coffee.

“Over my dead body. If you're going to just stand there, look up an animal hospital I can bring it to,” Cougar ground out as he gently rubbed behind the dog's ears as he inspected its injuries. The dog whined softly, but he didn't fight Cougar's inspection. Cougar didn't like what he saw. It didn't look life threatening, but it looked deliberate. This wasn't the work of an angry raccoon or another territorial dog. This had human written all over it, and Cougar had the sudden urge to go upstairs and grab his rifle and find the person who had done this.

“Why's it smell like a garbage in...what the hell?” Jake asked as he stepped into the kitchen, still looking thoroughly sleep mussed. “Oh god, what happened to him?” Jake asked, striding forward as though he completely forgot what had happened the last time he got within five feet of the dog.

As soon as the dog saw him, it was on alert and looking ready to bolt. Cougar's cold heart broke as he stepped in Jake's path and placed a dirty hand on Jake's chest. “Step back. You're scaring him,” Cougar told the younger man. Jake looked like Cougar had punched him as he came up short.

“Um, sorry,” he said, sounding small. If he had a tail like the dog, it would've been between his legs as he backed up slowly as though he'd done something terribly wrong.

“It is not your fault, Jake. Someone did this to him. He's just frightened,” Cougar told him, but Jake went pale at Cougar's words.

“Someone did that to him? Not like a car or animal? Like someone...d-did that?” Jake asked, and if the dog wasn't more of a priority, Cougar would have wrapped Jake in his arms because while Jake was one of the best soldiers Cougar had ever met, he looked like he couldn't comprehend a person hurting an animal. Cougar found himself in awe of how clean Jake's soul was.

However, he turned back to the dog instead of offering Jake comfort, and he inspected the dog's leg.

“Get me my first aid kit,” Cougar ordered quietly, and Jake jumped to do it.

Roque actually handed him the address of the nearest animal hospital, and the dog didn't get nervous when Roque got close to it. Only when Jake did.

Cougar splinted the dog's leg once he stabilized it, and he cleaned some of the blood and dirt off it before he asked Roque to drive him to the animal hospital since he couldn't ask Jake. Roque didn't actually complain as he took a pair of blankets that Jake offered him, and he made a bed of sorts in the back seat.

The dog rested its head in Cougar's lap on the drive and once they got to the hospital. Roque left him there and told him to just call and someone would come pick him up. Cougar nodded, and waited with the dog for someone to see them. When asked if he was willing to pay since the dog was a stray, Cougar sighed and nodded. So much for the balance. So much for strays being strays. The dog was his now.

Still, as the dog looked up at him with sad eyes, he couldn't find it in himself to be upset with the sudden responsibility. It turned out that other than the broken leg, the dog wasn't badly injured. There was bruises, but he'd done a fair job of protecting himself. The vet told him that the dog was lucky, but these wounds were definitely man made.

Cougar was surprised that the doctor didn't question him about it, but he supposed the dog's behavior around him was proof of his innocence. He was glad that Jake wasn't there because the police would probably be questioning him already if they saw the way the dog reacted to him.

It was as he thought that, that he paused. Jake was the only one that the dog was afraid of. He'd never been frightened of Cougar or Roque or Pooch. They were all frightening in their own right, but it was Jake that set the dog off.

Cougar remembered back to the big blond man he'd seen on his run some mornings. The dog never followed him down that block. It always turned off and met up with him later, or if the dog was leading, it took another route completely. The man had kennels in the back of his yard. Cougar had seen the fences, but he hadn't thought much of it until now.

Cougar clenched his fists, itching for his rifle and a clean line of sight on that man. Cougar paced until the vet informed him that they wanted to keep the dog for the night to make sure they hadn't missed any internal bleeding.

Cougar agreed, and left his information with the secretary. It was Clay that picked him up. He didn't look happy at all as Cougar silently got into the passenger seat.

“We're soldiers, Cougar. It isn't our job to rescue stray animals,” Clay told him.

“A man needs hobbies outside of work,” Cougar retorted just to be contrary, because it was something Jensen might say, and maybe Jensen was right about the whole thing. Strays weren't meant to be ignored and left to their own devices. Without a roof over their heads, they were easy prey for men willing to tip the balance in a much more sinister direction.

“That what this is? A hobby?”

Cougar shrugged. He didn't know what it was. He was too busy thinking of how he was going to kill the man that did this. The man that looked just enough like Jake to poison the dog against the one person who would've loved him unconditionally. He wanted it to be a painful death for the sadness he'd inadvertently cause Jake as well. He couldn't use his rifle. Far too easy to trace. He could use a knife, but that would be messy. Blood was traceable if he tracked it home. Cougar continued to think as they wove through the neighborhood; however, as they got close to home, Cougar noticed flashing lights a few blocks over.

He frowned, but didn't ask Clay to investigate. He hoped it wasn't the ambulance for Fred. The man was getting on in age. When they got home, Cougar got out of the car and walked to the front door. Jake pulled open the door before Cougar could open it.

“Is he gonna be okay? They didn't put him down did they?” he asked frantically. “Why isn't he with you?”

“He is okay. They are keeping him overnight for observation,” Cougar told him calmly.

“Thank god. I was really worried, Coug. He just looked so small and broken,” Jake said tugging at his hair.

“We need to take care of the man who did this,” Cougar said as he stepped past Jake to get his revolver which was in the bedroom they shared.

“Well see, I may have um, taken...”

As Cougar opened the door to their room, two large dogs jumped up and rested their paws against his chest, sniffing him and looking for affection.

“What?” Cougar asked as he let the large animals smell his hand before petting them.

“...care of it,” Jake finished, looking very guilty.

“What?”

“It wasn't hard to figure it out. I mean. The dog wasn't afraid of Roque. Roque! He scares me, but the dog didn't have a problem with him or you or anyone but _me_. And then you said that a person hurt him, and I mean come on, it just makes sense. And it didn't take a whole lot of brain cells to figure out exactly who looks like me and is enough of a creep to beat up helpless animals,” Jake rambled.

Cougar was a little annoyed that he hadn't realized this all sooner since he had spent a good deal of time with the dog. Jake had figured it out in one morning. That was impressive even if Jake was a genius.

“How did you get these two?” Cougar asked as he herded the dogs into the room.

“Three actually. Duchess is sleeping on your bed. Um, sorry bout that,” Jake corrected as he followed Cougar. The dogs seemed excited to see Jake. “I might have marched over there and waved a gun in his face after I pistol whipped the shit out of him. I informed him that it would be in his best interest to hand over any and all dogs in his possession. Then I might have called in an anonymous tip anyway,” Jake told Cougar. “That guy is going away for a long time, and not just for the animal abuse charges either. Grade A creep.”

Cougar couldn't help the bark of laughter that bubbled out of him. The dog on his bed, startled awake at the sudden sound, but she quickly went back to sleep. He took a better look at her, and he could see the marks of neglect on her. She was too thin, and her coat wasn't nearly as shiny or full as it should be. The other two were similarly poorly kept, and Cougar was glad Jake had taken them from the man.

“Come here,” Cougar told Jake pulling the younger man into a tight hug.

Jake hugged him back just as tightly. “You think your little friend will ever warm up to me?” he asked, sounding so hopeful.

“Sí,” Cougar told him. He had no idea if that was true, but he wanted it to be true, and for once he valued hope over truth, and gave Jake something more useful than bleak reality.

“I hope so. I want to be his friend too,” Jake said as he refused to let go of Cougar.

The dogs were circling their legs trying to get in on the cuddles, and Jake chuckled as one tried to stick its nose right between their bodies.

“Cougar is that a dog or are you just happy to see me?” Jake joked, and Cougar affectionately slapped the back of his head, still holding him close.

“I promised them cuddles after I got done pacing until you came home,” Jake told him, and Cougar rolled his eyes. This was a bad idea. These dogs deserved loving homes that could give them time and energy and...

Jake lifted the huge black mutt into his arms and carried it over to his bed and jumped onto it with the dog. The other one followed and jumped right on top of Jake. Duchess, who'd been sleeping on Cougar's bed, lifted her head to see what was happening, then suddenly she was bounding over to them to join the pile.

Maybe all any of them needed was Jake. This must have been what had Clay so grumpy, but Cougar couldn't actually find it in him to care. He just sat down on his bed and watched Jake and the dogs wiggle and find a comfortable configuration. These dogs seemed pleased as could be to play with Jake.

\---

Cougar was nervous when he went to pick the stray up. Jake had given the other two names already. The big black mutt was Barney, and the slightly smaller brown dog was Winston, and then of course there was Duchess. Jake told Cougar that he had to name his dog, but Cougar wasn't sure the dog was his to name.

What really worried him was whether the dog would ever warm to Jake.

The stray was excited to see him when he walked into the office. He stood up in his kennel and barked happily, tail wagging rapidly. The vet gave him the rundown on what the dog could and couldn't do before letting Cougar lift the medium sized dog out of the cage.

The dog licked his face happily once it was in Cougar's arm. Cougar smiled at the odd sensation of having his goatee combed the wrong way by the dog's tongue. “You are in good spirits today,” he told the mutt as he carried him out to the car then settled him in the blanket fort that Jake had painstakingly made for him.

“Jake made this for you. You should give him a chance. He rescued your friends and made sure that man will never hurt you again,” he told the dog as he drove. The dog barked happily at the sound of Cougar's voice. “Not a fan of the doctor are you?” Cougar laughed when the dog barked again.

When he got back to the house. Everyone was in the backyard watching Jake play with the dogs. He was running around, and they chased him and brought him to the ground before forming a cuddle pile on top of him.

Cougar smiled as he still held the stray in his arms. “Will you give him a chance? I understand if it's too soon, but your friends like him. Maybe he is not so bad, yes?” Cougar spoke softly to the animal before carrying him to the back door.

Jake's smile was bright as he saw them come outside. “He's home!” Jake shouted, and Cougar smiled at the fond way Clay rolled his eyes.

“It's not your newborn son, Jake. Tone it down,” the Colonel said, taking a sip from his tumbler of scotch.

The dog trembled slightly in Cougar's arms when he saw Jake, but he was quickly distracted as the other dogs rushed over to see him. He wiggled in Cougar's arms wanting to be let down as the others jumped and barked excitedly at his arrival.

“Be good,” Cougar said softly before crouching down, so the dog was level with the others. There was a lot of sniffing and licking and yipping as the dogs all inspected their new companion, and he in turn inspected them. It was Duchess that caught the smaller dog's attention, and he scrambled out of Cougar's lap to get closer to her.

“Looks like someone has a girlfriend,” Jake commented, still keeping his distance from the stray but looking so excited to see him moving around.

“That explains a lot,” Pooch said, voicing Cougar's own suspicions about why the stray would return to the place he'd been injured in the past.

“Aww was he launching an extraction mission all on his own? He's a hero Colonel. How can you not love him?” Jake asked Clay, still sitting in the grass where the dogs abandoned him.

“It's not the dog I don't love, Jensen. It's the idiot who went and threatened our neighbor's life with a gun he stole off of a foreign general in a country we were 'technically' never in, that I don't love. It's also the idiot who still needs to get one more dose of a rabies vaccine because he's too dumb to know when a dog wants to attack him,” Clay said, looking sadly down at his empty glass.

“Sticks and stones, Boss-man,” Jake chided.

Cougar smiled as he watched his stray limp after Duchess as she wandered over to the cardboard box filled with blankets that Jake had set up for her. The dog kept a wary eye on Jake and gave him a wide berth, but he remained calm as he curled up in the box with her.

The other dogs dashed back over to Jake, and Cougar followed them slowly. “He didn't run away,” Jake told him like he was in awe of the dog's small accomplishment.

“Do not rush him,” Cougar told him, but he sat on the ground beside Jake, knocking their shoulders together. Jake played with the dogs for hours. The others played intermittently between drinking and cooking on the grill. Cougar just sat and watched, ambling over to the pair in the box every once in a while to check on his charge. He brought them a bowl of water after they napped, and the pair took turns drinking and resting their head on the other while they drank.

When Pooch put out food for the group of dogs, they all ate hungrily, but Cougar noticed that his stray only ate half of his food. He protected his food from the others, but when they wandered back to Jake, the stray pushed his leftover food over to Duchess and whined at her until she ate it.

Cougar could see the way Jake was biting his lip like he might cry. Even Clay and Roque looked affected by the way the smaller dog guarded her as she finished his meal. When they returned to their box, Cougar walked over and lifted the stray into his arms and hand fed him more food.

“She is safe now, my friend. You must eat your own food now, or you will not heal,” Cougar told him as the dog ate what was offered to him, licking at Cougar's face and fingers between morsels. When he was satisfied that the dog had eaten enough, he placed him back into the box to rest again.

Jake bumped shoulders with him as he stepped back from the pair of dozing dogs. “We did good, huh?” Jake asked watching their new pack of dogs like a proud parent. Cougar shook his head, but he was smiling.

This was definitely not how it was supposed to be. Jensen had no sense when it came to strays. He couldn't just save one and call it a day. He needed to save them all, or he wouldn't be satisfied. As much as it was not practical, it was perhaps the thing Cougar loved most about him. Jake's heart was still so big even after all of the horrors they'd seen.

By the time the sun went down, Cougar had two dogs sleeping beside him, and Jensen dozing lightly with his head in Cougar's lap. Pooch rolled his eyes as he handed Cougar another beer.

“I'm not sure who was playing with who today, because I think the dogs may have been indulging Jake rather than the other way around,” Pooch laughed as they clinked their bottles together.

“He is good with them,” Cougar agreed, weaving his fingers into Jake's spiky hair and massaging his scalp. Jake made a soft hum as he continued to nap, and Pooch shook his head.

“Starting to think strays adopt Jensen not the other way around,” Pooch said, giving Cougar a pointed look.

Cougar smirked. Pooch was well aware of Cougar's affection for Jake even if Cougar never voiced it.

“We strays know a good thing when we see it,” Cougar retorted, watching as his own warily limped toward them. The dog sniffed the air cautiously as it came closer. Duchess trotted right to them and sat beside Jake, and that seemed to give the other some courage.

Still, the dog approached Cougar from the side Jake wasn't lying on and kept Cougar's body between him and Jake. He nosed at Cougar's shoulder, and Cougar reached up and rubbed his head.

“He is not so scary like this is he?” Cougar asked the dog as he glanced at Jake.

Pooch laughed at that, obviously not finding Jake scary at all. Cougar ignored him.

“Even your girlfriend likes him,” Cougar said, reaching out to ruffle Duchess' fur. Jake turned over in his sleep, curling into Cougar further. The dog jumped back a step, and Pooch laughed at the way Jake curled up to Cougar like one of the dogs. “He won't hurt you,” Cougar whispered, pressing a kiss to the stray's head when he stepped back into Cougar's space.

“You do not need to befriend him tonight, but one day, I think you will be good friends,” Cougar told the animal once Pooch had retreated into the house.

The stray curled up against his hip, and went to sleep. Cougar sighed as he looked up at the stars. This is what happiness felt like, and Cougar cherished it as he watched over his pack.

 


	2. Bonus Chapter

The first time Elliot—named because he always barked when Elliot came on screen during Law & Order: SVU which Pooch watched constantly—let Jake pet him, Cougar ignored the fact that Jake burst out into tears.

It had been a slow process. Over months, Elliot slowly let himself get closer and closer to Jake, but he still never allowed Jake to touch him. He'd brushed past Jake a few times, but any contact was fleeting and only initiated by Elliot.

Jake took it well, showing more patience for the dog than any of the Losers thought him capable of demonstrating. Cougar still made his quiet arguments to Elliot about why he should give Jake a chance while they took their morning runs, but he didn't actually physically push the dog into anything he didn't want. Elliot always watched the others play with Jake while he sat with Cougar, but he just wasn't ready yet.

Elliot got plenty of love from the other Losers, so he wasn't lonely when Jake played with the dogs. Elliot was actually a very affectionate dog, and he loved napping on Cougar's chest while he watched television or read.

It was actually as Cougar sat on the couch with Elliot dozing on him that it happened. Jake came into the living room to bring Cougar some lunch because Cougar, Elliot and Duchess were engrossed in a telenovela marathon.

“If the brass could see you now,” Jake laughed as he carried a tray into the room. Cougar just gave him the finger and went back to rubbing Elliot's ears.

Jake put the tray on the coffee table and handed Cougar the plate with his sandwich. Then Jake grabbed a couple treats off the tray, and suddenly he had Duchess' attention. He laughed as she made room for him on the couch and he quickly curled up against Cougar's side, giving her her treats.

Elliot eyed him warily as he got comfortable against Cougar. Cougar could tell Elliot knew that Jake had a treat for him too, but he was afraid to ask for it. Unlike usual, Cougar didn't take the treat from Jake and give it to Elliot. His hands were already full as he ate his sandwich. Elliot looked back and forth between Cougar and his sandwich and Jake and the treat. Cougar always gave Elliot roast beef if he begged for it, so he half expected Elliot to do just that.

Instead, Elliot shifted and put his front paws on Jake's thigh where it rested against Cougar's. He leaned over Jake to the hand holding the treat and licked his fist. It took Jake a moment to open his hand as he stared at Elliot in awe as the dog chose him over Cougar.

Cougar smiled and rubbed Elliot's back as he greedily ate not one but both treats that Jake held. “I guess you earned both,” Jake told him as he licked at the residue still on Jake's fingers then nudged his head under Jake's hand for a petting. “He's really letting me pet him,” Jake said, his voice laced with shock.

Cougar could see the tears slide beneath Jake's glasses, but before he could reach over to wipe them away, Elliot crawled fully into Jake's lap and stretched up to lick the tears off his face, dirtying his glasses in the process. That only made Jake cry harder, and soon Duchess was joining Elliot since she thought Jake was upset.

Jake pet them both gently as they tried to comfort him, and Cougar laughed softly behind his hat at the scene. When Jake finally got a hold on himself, both dogs settled back in to watch the show. This time Elliot sprawled over both of them with his head in Cougar's lap and his butt in Jake's. Jake eventually fell asleep on Cougar's shoulder, exhausted from trying to follow the rapid fire Spanish on the television.

“You did well,” Cougar told Elliot once he was sure Jake was asleep. He rubbed Elliot's neck and sides as he praised him softly.  

 

The End


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